Weeds and Other Wildflowers Along the Bike Path, April 2, 2013

I'm in a group of retired folks that ride bicycles three times a week, mostly along A1A. Distances range from 20 to 30 miles, depending on where each person starts from. Occasionally I get asked for the name of a particular wildflower along our bike route. Here is a display of some of the most common ones found along the A1A bike path from Satellite Beach to Publix in Melbourne Beach. Most of the flowers are fairly small, so you have to look closely to see them. All plants are native, unless otherwise noted.

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Punctureweed; goatheads
Not native

This is the most important weed that cyclists need to know about.

This weed is believed to be propagated by bicycles!

Its scientific name is Tribulus terrestris. Tribulus refers to a medieval weapon called a caltrop that was thrown during warfare to stop enemy horses from advancing. Today it keeps bicycles from advancing, or at least, slows them down.

An extract made from this plant is claimed to increase the body's natural testosterone levels; however, such claims have not been proven.

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Whitemouth dayflower

The small, third petal is white

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Common dayflower 

Not native

The small, third petal is blue. In spite of its name, this species is much less common in this area than its native cousin, whitemouth dayflower.

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Southern beeblossom

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Largeflower Mexican clover
Not native
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Tropical Mexican clover
Not native

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Capeweed; frog fruit

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Coastalplain goldenaster

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Prostrate globe amaranth
Not native

One of the most common weeds along the bike path, especially near the Spessard Holland golf course.

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Virginia pepperweed

Back home in north Florida, we called this "chicken pepper." The flattened seeds have a bite like horseradish.

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Fire-on-the-mountain; wild poinsettia

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Spanish needles

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Powderpuff

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Pricklypear cactus

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Common sowthistle

Not native

This thistle is not prickly.

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Mohr's thoroughwort

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Love vine

A parasitic vine.

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Hercules-club; toothache tree

Thorny limbs and aromatic leaves. Supposedly, native Indians chewed the leaves to relieve toothache.

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Saw palmetto

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Wireweed

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Blanket flower; firewheel

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Creeping cucumber

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Tallow wood; hog plum

This particular plant had misshapened fruit.

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Pennsylvania cudweed

Not native

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Virginia plantain

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Walter's groundcherry; husk tomato

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Lantana

Not native

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Groundsel tree

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Florida tasselflower

Not native

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Balsampear

Not native

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Blackroot

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Oriental false hawksbeard

Not native

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Dune sunflower

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Cutleaf evening primrose

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Chandelier plant

Not native

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Coralbean

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Gopher apple

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Simpleleaf chastetree
Not native

Common along dune line, mixed in with seagrape.

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Stinging nettle; tread-softly; finger-rot

Nasty plant; don't touch it!

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Tosohatchee WMA, March 31, 2013

A quick tour to see if we could find anything new. Saw but did not photograph lyreleaf sage, white violets, coreopsis, fleabane, and blackberry.

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Fourpetal St.John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapetalum, Clusiaceae)

Native

Found only a few plants.

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Narrowleaf blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium, Iridaceae)

Native

Abundant; alongside most roads.

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Butterweed (Packera glabella, Asteraceae)

Native

Fairly common; alongside most roads. The butterfly is a phaon crescent.

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Dixie iris; prairie iris (Iris hexagona, Iridaceae)

Native

It appeared that the peak blooming period was over. Most iris had already bloomed and turned to seed pods.

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Coastalplain honeycombhead; yellow buttons (Balduina angustifolia, Asteraceae )
Native

This was initially misidentified as southeastern sneezeweed (Helenium pinnatifidum). It is now (9/19/13) correctly identified as yellow buttons. This particular specimen had a single flower on a leafless, unbranched, softly hairy stem. Petals deeply notched, forming three lobes. There was only this one specimen, located on the west side of St. Nicholas Rd.

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Purple thistle (Cirsium horridulum, Asteraceae)

Native

Lots of thistles alongside most roads. Really vicious thorns!

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